Memories of the golden years of childhood

C£o**s-soy<r - 1/26 -09c ^

Ruth Crow (Miller) in the 1980s

Tennis party at "Rossie" 802 Mair Street Ballarat in the early 1920s. The little girl sitting cross 1 egged in the foreground wrote these

memories in 1989. Her name, then, was Ruth Miller.

Others in the immediate family circle were from left

:-Aunty Anna, mother. (sister) Winifred leaning on mother's knee,

(cousin) Alice with dark headband, (brother) Forbes, standing behind seat, (cousin) Betty with hand on knee, other cousins and friends: then on far ^right near small tree. Aunty Rue with raquet and (sister) Betty leaning on

her. Uncle Matt behind tree, the men partly hidden by tree were probably uncles.

From left seated on ground ;- Two cross-legged boys were sons of my mothers "best" friend, we called her "Aunty Flo" (she is holding her hat and sitting next to Auntie Rue); then Ruth (gathering her golden memories), Uncle Roy, (cousin) Dudley and (brother) Ken sitting cross

legged far right.

Most of the unidentified people are ptx>bably relations I think the only people who were not related are the two boys in the foreground and their mother, (such an intimate family friend that we called her "Aunty*) the

seated woman, holding a hat.

The photo was taken by father using a camera with a glass plate. He developed and printed the photo in his home dark: room, probably with one or two children watching.

Our heme in Ballarat was called "Rossie" after the Rossie flour mills in

Memories of the Golden Years of Childhood In the Golden Garden City of Ballarat

Told by the Little Girl in the Foreground of the Photo

Index

Introduction

Childhood Memories by Ruth Crow pages 1 Afterword page 11

Childhood Poetry page 12 Souvenirs about Great Grandparents page 13 Cousins and Their Age Range page 14 Chart of Relations and Friends page 15

This document has been prepared for June Fhctor in appreciation of the contribution to Australian history and culture by the European miqrants who came to Australia because of Hitler's oppression.

This is a draft document and thus contains some typing mistakes and other errors. No part of the document can be republished without permission of Ruth Crow (328.2345).

This document has been prepared entirely from memory, but of course the way the facts are presented is from hind-sight. There maybe a few

inaccuracies in detail but these do not change the facts.

For serious students oral anecdotes to illustrate the facts aire available if interviews are arranged by phoning Ruth Crow 328.2345.

June 1989

RUTH CROW

E2-5, 89 O'Shanassy Street North Melbourne, Vic. 3051

Memories from the Golden Years of Childhood in

The Golden Garden Citv of Ballarat Introduction

My parents were first generation Australian born; my father, Dougald Forbes Stalker Miller, and my mother, Winifred Maud Miller (nee Coutts)

were born in Ballarat in the 1870s.

They were both born into large, prosperous, Scottish migrant families which arrived in Australia in the wake of the gold rush and established businesses. One grandfather was an importer of tea and had a grocery shop and the other a tailoring establishment.

My parents would have been brought up accepting a strong protestant ethic (see Afterword) Tliey would have moved in the same social circle

which would have had the "Kirk" at its centre.

Th is first genera t ion born in Australia included several who continued the family businesses but also some who studied to become

professionals. For example, my father was a dentist and my mother, before her marriage, was a teacher. I had uncles who were solicitors, and one who was an architect, some of my aunts were trained nurses until they were

married.

My chiIdhood home was at 802 Mair Street, Ballarat and it was the home in which my mother had been born.

It was an old rambling two storey house which my grandfather would have bought before 1870. It was one of the first substantial houses to be built in Ballarat and the original building can be seen in the sketch in Wither's "History of Ballarat". It was demolished in the 1940s or 1950s.

I was born at home, as were my brothers and sisters. My mother would have had Sister Allen, a midwife and friend, living in the home for a few

days before and for sevei~al weeks after my birth. Also she would have had her closest sister, Anna, staying in our home to give her support. The housework and cooking would have been the responsibility of Effie and Maggie (the two "maids" who wori<ed for the family for a number of years).

As well, my grandfather would have been living at our home. So at my bii~th there would have been quite a large household.

There were five children in our family: (two boys and then 3 girls) all born within eight years.

As I am the second youngest. I have no recollection of any of my mother's pregnancies. My sister. Betty, is two and a half years younger

than I am.

We all were veiy healthy and most of us (parents and children) rarely had to see a doctor. If he was needed he came to the house. His name ' was Dr Robert Scott. He was a family friend as well as our general practitioner. As a staunch Presbyterian he moved in the same social circle as we did.

The 1920s were truly Golden Years__for me: my brothers and sisters and our pai~ents had good health, we wanted for nothing in food and clothing, we had a great sense of belonging to the neighbourhood and town, plenty of room to play at home both outdoor and indoor, a wide circle of

friends, neighbours and relations (see charts attached), plenty of comings and goings of other adults and children (living in the "family home" we were the pi ace relations and friends stayed a t when they came to Ballarat), plenty of opportunity for sharing and caring with children of

Introduction continued... .2. . .

We knew "where we were" (or thought we did) in relation to how to behave at home and abroad.

We were reasonably secure in our everyday social relations with members of the family, with neighbours, friends, school teachers and

others who peopled our world.

My father fs "outside" interests included the Caledonian Society, the Fish Acclimatisation Society and the Workers Education Association. He was

very much instrumental in introducing science lectures through the WEA and the lecturers from Melbourne often stopped over at our home (WEA was the forerunner of the Ault Education at CAE).

My mother's "outside" interests incl uded the Old Col 1 egians Association of Queens College (later this school in Ballarat was called Ballarat Girls Grammar"), the Baby Health Centre Association, the National

Council of Women, the Ladies Guild of St Andrews Church and the Victoria League.

My brothers' "outside!11 interest was scouting.

My sistei's and I a Iso had an '' outside'' interest. We were in the Girls Order of the Covenant. This was a club for Presbysterian girls where

$' we learnt about the Scottich covenanters. Our pass word was "Pentland" and our oath was ''I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Qod than to dwell in the tents of wickedness for ever".

I was educated during my very early years at Clarendon College Kindergarten, I then attended Pleasant Street State School and later Ballarat Church of England Girls Grammar School.

It may be wondered why I did not go to (Presbyterian) Clarendon; the reason was that my mother had been a pupil at the fore-runner to Gramma*-. Originally it was not a chut~ch school. It used to be called Queens and I

think it may once again be using that name.

My mother's name was on the Dux Board of Queens (Grammar). She was very very active in the Queens Old Collegians.

My brothers were educated at Pleasant Sti~eet School and Ballarat College, a Presbyterian school. My father had been a student at one of the fcre-runners to Ballarat College and was dux there.

My parents scholastic successes were a great spur to me to study and do well. By attending these secondai-y schools we really felt we were carrying on a family tradition.

My mother believed tha t the St a te Schools '' gave you a good

gi'x>undincf%. Stie was absolutely right ! I was really shocked at the low

standard of education I was given at Gr>amm>ar,

To give you an example. The State School teachers were very strict on the use of the word "got". We always had to say "I do not have' not "I have not got". Imagine my utter sw~pise, when, soon after starting at Grammar I said to a teacher "I do not have a locker" and she said "Have'nt you got one yet ?" I was humiliated for her sake.

Til is may seem trivial but it was not so at the time for me: in any case. I remember the insecurity I felt when I did not have full confidence in my teachers.

For a number of reasons I did not find my yeais at Grammar as challenging as my educational experiences at Pleasant Street School.

Of course there were other reasons for my insecurity during my secondary schooling, but as this is about the Golden Yeais of Childhood

they are not included.

Brei-ham a ^ d Sisters in 19ia

' Bufb II KeaTfiaifred 4, Forbes

Stuamer 1919 Christmas 1925

Mb 3, Vinifred 4t aod Baby Betty.

Tylers tad Killers :-htk Peggy l. iaatr Bae,

Childhood Memories Ruth Crow

June 1989

My grandmama is very old/ she sits in her armchair.

She wears a shawl and a white lace cap to cover her snow white hair.

She knits a little now and then, or sits just thinking there. I think it must be very dull to spend one's daytime so.

But, when I mention it to her my grandmama says "No J

"I think of all the pleasant things that happened long ago." "Remember you are making now, your memories," she said.

"So have Some very pleasant ones to store up in your head. Or else you will be sighing and regretting them instead." Now, when I grow to be quite old and sit in my arm chair

And wear a shawl and a white lace cap to cover my snow white hair

I mean to have the nicest things to think of when I am there. That was one of the poems I recited at birhday parties when I was a

child. Perhaps my memories of childhood have been shaped by my ambition "to have the nicest things to think of in my armchair. (See attachments) "Shades of Sweetness and Anguish"

There are some who believe that children who really had a happy

childhood only remember the unhappy events and vica-versa: whether this is true or not, in writing down my memories. I am not aiming at only recording events. My intention is to describe the relationships between our family and society in the 1920s.

I am not attempting to analyse relationships in the family. Willa Catha, an American writer early this century explains that Katharine Mansfield had a gift for showing

-*-"the many kinds of personal relations which exist in an everyday "happy family' who are merely going on living their daily lives, with no crisis or shocks or bewildering complications to try them. Yet every individual in that household (even the children) is clinging passionately to his (/her) individual soul, is in terror of losing it in the general family flavour One realises that even in

• • • C • • <) •

I was born in Ballarat in 1916 and thus my childhood memories are

about living in a large provincial city during the 1920s.

In the Introduction I have given some factual information about our fami ly. This may be useful to those who are interested in fami ly relationships and may help to indicate some of the "anguish" in our lives, but mainly I am describing my "nicest memories'* although, in this day and age these memories may not be regarded as being "nice", for example my memories of how we regarded people who were not of Scottish origin.

"Not Like Our Scones'* (Racism in the 1920s)

A pet saying in our home was "They are not like our scones", meaning that the person was not to be cultivated as a personal friend. In hind-sight we wer^e unconsciously quite racist, as these examples will show.

1. One day my mother came to where we were playing and said "Go quietly through the porch and have a look at the woman I have given a cup of tea. She is a black Aborignal women, she is part of the dying race, you may never have a chance to see one again!"

2. My aunt lived on the outskirts of the city and she frequently said "I am so lonely that if China Choncr the Chinaman knocked on the door I would say "Velly good, come in Johnny! Come in! Velly glad to see you !"

If we put a coin near our faces we were alway warned "Don't do that it may have been in a Chink's pocket !"

3. When I told my mother my place in the class test she would always subtract the Jewish girl .— "You say you came third but where did Miriam come, did she come first or second ? You can't count her, the Jews are too smart and its not fair competition." However our family was friendly with several Jewish families and had a very high regard for several of the Jewish professional and business people.

4. When I made a new friend at school I had to make sure they had a Scottish name, for example my mother accepted a friendship with Margaret McGregor but frowned on one with Patsy Murphy.

5. My mother and father cultivated several French friends and some of

my early teenage memories are of these relationships. They were "Allies". 6. In all our games the enemy was the "Hun&%. So I remember being surprised when my mother gave lunch to a German youth who had come begging for work. I especially remember how she cried afterwards saying "He said

the £erman people didn't want the war".

7. We sang all sorts of racist ditties in oui~ games ;- "If you step on a crack you will marry a Chinaman"; "Catch a Nigger by the toe"; "Charlie kissed a black girl and blamed on to.. . "

"The Cradleship and Other Storied (Sex Education in 1920s)

"The Cradleship?1 was the title of a popular book about reproduction of birds and bees.

• • • ! / • • •

2. When on holiday at Point Lonsdale I discovered a whole window full of holiday greeting cards. Most of them ended up with the worxis "I wish you were here !", but not really meaning it. They were very garish, the words were simple to read and I puzzled over the double meanings. I was fascinated.

I think it was the first time I realised that men and women could be antagonistic to each other. I can't remember any particular jokes but some of them were about women having short hair, particularly the "Eton crop1.

This was probably the first time I read something that was not provided by my parents or school teachers.

3. In our bookcases there was quite a number of books on anatomy but despite giving us the "Cradleship* to read and more or less supporting Dr Button's public instruction, my parents were not prepared for us to learn

the details of sexual organs from diagrams and photographs in these books. In all the anatomy books the lower part of the diagrams were carefully pasted over with thick brown paper.

4. In the early part of this century my mother taught physiology at private boarding schools. She would encourage us to be modest in the words

we used by saying "When I first had to teach the girls about their bodies I would blush when using the word stomach so I used to turn my back and say it as I wrote it on the board."

5. I also learnt a little (very little) about sex from the Bible; but not from the children's Bible. My sister and I tried to discover what the word "womb" in the bible meant and found the dictionary stated that it was

a "hole or cavity". This was difficult to envisage. The word "begat" was also a puzzler and we looked that up and found it meant to "get" or sane

such word that did not describe what we really wanted to know.

"Be careful Crossing the Roads and Don *t Speak to Any Men" (Street Life) This saying was always part of our goodbye ritual and we carried it out very conscientiously; especially on our way to and from school.

1. We walked about half a mile to school and came back for dinner each midday. I think the midday break was called "dinner time" not "lunch

time" Nearly all the teachers and children at our school went home for the main meal of the day. The dinner break was about an hour and a half or at

least an hour and a quarter. I remember when it was shortened.

2. I i-emember our walk to school as always being pleasant as if there was no bleak winter in Ballarat ! There was plenty to do on the walk, such as; looking after another younger child, racing to catch up with friends, skipping with a rope, whipping tops (I was a real champion at this and could keep a top running for about a quarter of a mile. . that is if my memory serves me correctly), bouncing balls, boat races with sticks floating in the gutter, running a stick along the fences to hear the noises, particularly on the iron railings and the corrugated iron.

3. Every Friday was "Bull DaVx when herds of cattle and sheep were driven down our street to the stock market which was really very close to the city centre. We would never wear any red on Fridays.

4. We had our "time keepers'1 on the way. These.vere men and women walking towards the city (in the opposite direction to our school). You could tell how late you were by where you passed a time keeper.

Very few children had watches and this is one example of how we could check on time. We also had factory whistles to informs, us about the passing of time, especially the time to get up at the 7.30 am whistle.

• • • <-f • • •

6. We made up all sorts of stories about the houses we past imagining the lives of the people living in them. There was a "haunted house" on our way. This was a house we could not find a clue to let us know who lived there. The windows were curtained but we never saw anybody about the house or front garden and none of our acquantances knew who lived there. It was probably not deserted, but it was a mystery house as all the other houses

we passed had some special personality about them as between us (our mates who walked the same way) we knew a bit about who lived in them.

"What Did You Learn at School Today ?l (Playing and Learning at School) I think this universal saying really shows how fascinated parents are in the who lie process of how their offspring is learning.

Our family folk-lore includes a story about my first days at school and how for days and days my answer to this welcoming query was "Nothing" until one day I came in breathless to pant out "I learnt something ! I learnt something today !" only to be immediately downcast when my mother asked me "Well what did you learn ?l because mv answer was "Oh I forgot !" I don't remember the incident so it is not actually a memory; but it is good start to this section on what I did do at school.

1. My favourite summer game was making pine-needle houses under the tall pine trees in a far corner of the school ground. We made the houses by drawing lines with the pine needles; that is doing a ground-plan of a house, leaving gaps for doors and windows but placing sticks for window

ledges. We made pine needle beds and used sticks for other furniture and made armchairs in the knotted roots.

There were about six old pines so about a dozen children would play day after day in this remote corner. Each tree had a house and each house had two or more occupants.

It seems remarkable that our dwellings were not destroyed by other children. I think a contributing reason would be that the boys were strictly segregated from the girls and these particular pines were well away from the boys' yard.

2. One of mv favourite winter games was plaving chasey in the shelter shed when the seats were "home". There would be lots of different chasey games going on at the one time, the noise was deafening and that was part 'of the fun. The girls and boys shelter sheds had adjoining walls and thus

the shoutings from both sheds were mingled. I know manv schools don't have large shelter sheds now and this popular past time is dying out.

Another favourite game developed from the fact that the school had buttresses, which are not now an architectural feature of most schools

About a dozen girls would push and shove each other in a line against the butti-ess wall with the object of getting the girl in the corner "out".

In the girls' playground there were three buttresses and thus about twenty or so girls could play at the one time. As there was a great deal of coming and going in the game the groups would keep changing so lots of children did have a "go" in the shoving game.

I am not sure what we called the game it was some such as "shovey' or "squashy" or "squeezy"; anyhow, it did get the blood circulating !

3. In summer "Fly Catcher** was the name of the monitor who stood at the school door and used a clean handkerchief to swish the flies from the children's backs as they marched into school.

» • • ^/ « • *

We produced handkerchiefs or were sent out to stand in the freezing corridor. Not all children's dresses had pockets.

Some children had their hankies attached to their dress with a safety pin, others had them stuffed in their bloomers or up their sleeves. My mother did not approve of these practices so we had little pockets on the

outside of our bloomers which we found very practical.

After waving our hankies we then were shown how to put one corner on the bridge of the nose and fluff out the rest of the hankie, hold it to

the nostrils, to snort both nostrils, then, snort each nostril separately, and to wipe our nose after each snort.

5. I was in a class of 60 when I was eight years old. Every now and again our teacher would ask us to fold our arms on the desk and put our head down for a rest (on reflection it was probably for a rest for her). She used to say we had to be so quiet that she should be able to hear a pindrop. She had a pin-monitor who would collect a pin from the teacher's desk and go to the back of the room to drop it. I always listened for the drop and always believed that the teacher did hear it even if I did not.

6. On thinking about what I actually learnt in the class roan I am interested to find out that the lessons where I really knew I did learn something.... really ticked over.... were lessons given by student

teachers. I can vividly remember what I learnt from them. Perhaps we took our classroom teachers very much for granted as we took our parents.

7. I did learn out of the classroom and a particular project I thoroughly enjoyed was when I was in the 5th grade and the teacher organised a project about Lake Wendouree.

Each week we studied a bird, a tree or seme water life and we had nature study books in which we drew and descibed what we studied.

8. At our school the only musical instruments we had were a drum and a kettle dram. These were used for marching into school.

There was a piano in the Higher Elementary part of the school. Each teacher had a tuning fork and we started each song with "Doh. Ray Me.. .".

The school had no gramophone and of course wireless was still at the cat's whiskers stage or not much better. So we really had only singing for music.

Mothers Clubs were just starting when I was at the State School and I think even in the 1950s "luxuries" such as pianos were bought by money raised from the Mothers Club.

11. All the children in my grades at school were either Australain born or migrants from Great Britian except for one Italian girl. Her father was Mr La Gruta, the conductor of the Ballarat Regent Picture Theatre Symphony Orchestra. In the days of silent films in the best theatres there were whole orchestras. I think some La Grutas are still involved in orchestras in Australia.

Mr La Gruta introduced us to classical music when he played at some of the school concerts. I remember how the rowdy hall settled down to quietness when he played. It was really miraculous.

9. At most of the Ballarat State Schools drawing was taucht by a visiting teacher who was not on the Department's rol 1. His name was Mr Foster and he was very old (possibly a retired unqualified teacher). We

10. We had drill (by an ^ex-army captain) in the school yard at least once each day but no sport was organised except for scholars in the Higher Elementary section of the school.

We played sport which we organised ourselves; for example rounders was a game which involved quite a crowd of girls and of course the boys kicked paper footballs. No balls or other sports equipment was provided by the schools, to my knowledge.

The gravelled playground lent it self to drawing a great variety of out 1 ines for games, for example hoppy. I think that asphalted plavgrounds are very sterile with their permanent markings for games which are seldom played. We also enjoyed plaving hoppy over the gutters and jumping the school yard puddles I think the conditions for such %\adventw~e play" has been reduced in most school yards.

"I Love A Sunburnt Countr\/% (England and Scotland still "Home")

Despite the fact that my parents had lived their whole life in Australia there was little evidence of any deep regard for anything Australian.

1. Our large garden had one gjm tree and two wattles. I thin): all the other trees, shrubs and flowers were exotics.

2. In the Spring my mother would take us for a picnic to Victoria

Park wher? we picked buttercups, daisies and hai~bingers of spring. Tnese grew under the shady elms and oal<s. We did not go on picnics to see the

wattle in the spring.

3. My father usually gave the oration on Robbie Bums's birthday but we did not celebrate Adam Lindsay Gordon's birthday even though he had had some association with Ballarat.

4. I learnt all the names of the exotic trees around the lake and in the streets. We did not go to the bush to learn the names of the plants.

5. Our bookcases were full of English and Scottish poetry but I don't think we had one book of an Australian poet or even a collection of poetry by a number of Austrian poets.

6. All the periodicals we subscribed to were from overseas (see later).

7. Our bookshelves had plenty of books from England on biology and

botany, particularly on fresh water biology and field botany. Thus we could read about fish and other water life in the rivers and streams in England and Scotland, and about the flowers that could be gathered on the moors of Scotland and beside the lakes in England. We knew nothing about alpine daisies at Mount Hotham or the heaths at Wyperfeld.

8. A dried sprig of Scottish heather was a prized bookmark in the family Bible. Although we pressed flowers in large heavy books I do not remember ever collecting native blooms or leaves for this purpose.

9. As president of the Fish Acclimatisation Society, my father had an abiding interest in acclimatising trout into the streams and lakes in

Victoria. He took no interest whatever in what waterlife existed in the streams and lakes before white settlement.

10. On reflection, I think the School Readers and the School Newspapers did have quite a bit about Australia but I don't remember discussing any of the poems or stories with my parents.

• • • . { • • •

Read only Good Books You May not Have a Chance to Read Them Later."

I think this is from one of Thoreau's essays, but who ever wrote it, it was a saying well heeded in our home. Here is some information on the books we read and where they came from.

1. Our school had no library what so ever. In each classroom there was a cupboard about the size of a wardrobe, but narrower. This was used for storing chalk, the strap, the books and any other teaching aid. I don't think any teacher had more than a couple dozen books in the cupboard.

2. Most Friday afternoons, after recess, we had free reading time whem we brought our favourite book to school to read and sometimes to swap with another child.

3. I used to greatly envy children who brought Annuals. My parents did not believe in such "trashy" literature for children. The sort of books I took to school were not valued for swapping so I rarely saw the

inside of one of these big colourful books.

4. Our home was the headquarters for all the relations and whenever a household shifted they used our place to store their odds and ends. We

were frequently storing books. Many of these books were children's books so we had lots of books to choose from at home, but quite a few were old fashioned.

5. I loved the "What Katy did " books, the "Anne of Avonleigh"

series. We were encouraged to read Dickens. Robbie Louis Stevenson, George Elliott and Victor Hugo and probably did read parts or all of some of

their novels but possibly we also read versions written for children. I really can't remember but I do remember the plots.

6. Our playroom bookshelves did include a few novels by Australian writers for example Mary Grant Bruce ("Norah of the Billabong" series) and Ethel Turner ("The Seven Little Australians" series). We greatly prized a book by Mary Rentoul Outhwaite (I think that is how her name was spelt)

who was an Australian but did not write about life in Australia.

7. Our bookcases in the dining room reached from floor to ceiling and were packed tight with scientific reference books and novels. Here also were stored the dictionaries, encyclopias and Bibles. We had the Australian Encyclopaedia. Castles Books of Knowledge (8 of them) and Howard's Art of Reckoning: all of which I used for school study.

My father had some reaMy valuable books such as "Ingleby's Legends" with wood cuts. These used to scare the day lights out of me. Also a very big copy of Danti's "Inferno" with wonderful woodcuts which were also very scary and a copy of Rabelais "Gargantua" and "Pantagruel". He had whole shelves of books in French which he really enjoyed reading.

8. We had the old family Bibles from both sides of the family. These were huge books and inside them was information on the births, deaths and marriages of the relations. For some reason these family pages were securely hidden from prying eyes by having brown paper pasted over them. It was probably because of some mock modesty. This may have been because my mother was well into her thirties when she began her family and was (if my guesses are correct) conceiving in her early forties. She may have been concerned about what her children would think of this as they grew up.

9. A regular Sunday ritual was sitting around my mother's knee listening to stories from "The Children's Bible". I think these were written by Arthur Mee (or some such named person).

, , . o • • •

I can't remember any publication my mother received regularly and of

course she did enjoy the above publications. She did not read French as

well as my father but there were plenty of beautiful pictures in the

L'IIlustration so that even those who knew no French at all could really

enjoy it. I loved the picutres of the French streets with their trees.

I also loved the "Sphere' which was a pictorial type of magazine. I

can remember the pictures of the English Police Strike or some such rather

fierce street demonstration in the early nineteen twenties and the

photographs of the Royal Princesses when they were babies.

Our parents subscibed to "My Magazine" for the children. I think this

was edited by Arthur Mee. It had some poems by Robbie Louis Stevenson in

each issue and I really enjoyed them, particularly because of the graceful

line drawings on the same page as the poems.

The Flower People in the 1920s (Games I Plaved with My Sisters)

We had a large rambling garden with a considerable variety of flowers

blooming all through the summer months. We (the children) made great use

of these both for decoration and for play. We were allowed to pick the

flowers almost any time we liked.

1. Each of the girls had a flower vase to fill with fresh flowers for

the dining room.

2. We invented a games with the flowers. For example

.--Flower Families in which the mother in her crinolin would be a rose.

the father in his velvet suit would be a large pansv. the children would

be fuchias, or delphiniums, or whatever pleased us.

Little school children were lobelias or wattle or some other prolific

flower such as phlox: delphiniums were useful for larger school children.

and hollyhocks we're just right for ballet dancers.

We would make moss houses in the roots of the hawthorn hedge, use

hydrangea leaves for areoplanes and so on and on.

We would begin the game with "I bags the ... prettiest family or

the richest family... or the happiest family. (I like to think that I

always bagged being the "happiest"; but have no way of verifying this). We

then played a type of dolls house game, visiting each other and generally

playing out home-making.

Dressing Flowers was a variation of this game but we would use the

flowers to dress up a large rose hip or ice land poppy head. This was

popular when the petunias were plentiful and we could put several flowers

+*, ^ m y-o n»i»> netticoats and dress. Men's and boy's clothing could

S "male oVt 'of^aTerbu^blTll, or fox gloves. *

—

^

"

- ^

^

\L*«Tan* red geranium petals for mouths, pressing the petals well in.

7

%fr.r^nU^was also popular. Flowers were used as make-up for

S *S,£/7v nerfomed to each other in the garden). We would use

gZZTul foTbott l^tTckand rouge and the blue bag from the laundry for

eye ^f

'

r version of the flower game. We used

differ^t^^nsfor different members of the family and constructed

£ £ £ LtofbTocks or cards or used some corner in the room or the space

^lf%& ^Ze^ Zt ^£S& as the flower gameswhich

me nui.^u yam rnilarlv when we had moss houses to build.

C

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Si lS ^o^nZTLilies or school, or whatever.

tut U Je tad 7tieZ«e my have played t*> girls playing «ith the one

• • ? 7 • • •

The Flowers That Bloom in the Spring (Birthday Celebrations)

I used to cry when my father sang "Oh Bother the Flowers which Bloom in the Spring*. I was the only member of the family with a birthday in the spring and I thought he was singing about me.

My birythday happened to be on the same day as a very dear friend of the family who was a widower with two sons the same age as my brothers. So the two families always celebrated the birthdays togther.

This friend had a really enormous garden and was a grower of prize winning daffodils.

On my birthday he would arrive in a horse drawn cab which was full of spring blossoms, white cherry-plum branches, pink blossom and buckets of daffodils.

1. At our birthday parties when we were little we played ; "singing games1* (Green Gravels, Oranges and Lemons, the Thread follows the Needle, and others such).

2. When we were older we played "parlour games*1 such as the Priest in the Parish has Lost His Considering Cap, Family Coach and Consequences as well as charades. We did not have competition games and prizes.

3. At most parties each guest would present an item. During this concert part of the party the adults would crowd around so that your recitation, song or dance was given for the adults as much as for the

children. At some parties a small gift would be given to those who performed, but this was not always the case.

"The Melbourne Trains in !" (Train Travelling in the 1920s)

At eight o'clock each night we would hear the horses trotting past pulling the cabs from the station and we would call out to each other "The Melbourne train is in !".

1. Sometimes this would inspire my oldest sister to tell us about "GoinQ to Melbourne". We loved this story, she really described the whole trip. What she saw out the window, the stations the train stopped at and the farewells and greetings.

It would go like this "Mr Billings is here with the cab. come on lets

get in. Gig jog, gig jog (that would be repeated for some considerable time with snatches of conversation that could take place in the cab). Then she would describe what took place at the station goodbyes and then off on

the trip and all the way she would tell us what she saw out the window interspersing this with calling out the names of the stations.

Then the arrival in Melbourne and being met by our aunt, then riding on the tram, going under the railway lines at Flinders Street Station, then the electric train and so on.

The parts I liked best was when she would see the big electricity poles (near Melton) and then, fairly soon after reaching Sunshine, the excitement of seeing a yellow cab from the train window (we had no yellow cabs in Ballarat) and also the way she described the tunmel near Jolimont with all the lights in its walls.

This story could go on night after night, mostly to Melbourne, but sometimes to other places one or the other of us had had holidays.

2. By the way there were still horse drawn cabs in Ballarat in 1939 and Mr Billings was the name of the cabbie who usually took us to the station.

3. The cabbies had their shelters in various parts of the city, for example there was one near us on the corner of Sturt and Drummond Streets, near the Hospital.

4. When my sister was telling the story we all held our noses as the

. . • » V / • • •

"A Modest Dress. Meat but not Gaudy (What we Wore))

I think this is one of Samuel Wesley's admonitions. In any case it was a touchstone for my mother in choosing our garments,

1* In winter we wore naw tunics and white blouses to school, velvet di~esses on Sunday and knitted dresses on Saturday and in the holidays.

2 In summer we wore checked gingham or flowered trabolco dresses to school, on Saturday and during the holidays and on Sunday we would wear

crepe de Chine dresses or voile dresses.

3. Most of our clothes were made at home, not by my mother but by a dressmaker who came in for several days to mend and make new clothes.

4. We rarely went shopping for clothes and I don't remember ever going window shopping with my mother.

5. Even when buying shoes and hats for us. my mother would make a choice from advertisements and then have the several pairs of shoes or sevei~al styles of hats sent home so we could try them on at home. This was

called "buying on apro." I think "apro" meant "approval". The shop let you have the goods without paying until you had made your choice.

6. My mother bought most of her dresses at the wholesale part of the Lucas Clothing Factory and she also bought some of our ready made best dresses there, she was able to do this because of her friendship with the management.

"Some Have Meat and Cannot Eat and Sane have None That Want It'' (Meals) "But we have meat and we can eat. and so the Lord be thanked."

These are the words of Robbie Burns" Grace. We said this Grace at meals.

1. We ate the traditional three meals a day. Porridge for breakfast, two course meal at midday and soup, or savoury or salad for the evening meal. The family all ate together.

2. All the food we ate was delivered to the house.

3. Milk, meat and bread was delivered daily, groceries once a week or when ordered special deliveries would be made, vegetables twice weekly.

4. All the trademen came in horse drawn vehicles.

5. Often there were home-made cake or biscuits in the pantry.

Golden Years of childhood In the Golden Garden City of Ballarat

Attachments

Afterword Facts About the Migrant Generation and First Generation. Verses Poetry Learnt "at my Mother's Knee" .

Curios About Great Grandparents. Time Span Three Generations

Networics Relations, Friends and Nearness to home:

• • • I I 0 • «

Afterword

Memories from the Golden Years of Childhood

The migrant Generation .

All four of my grandparents migrated as children with their their parents from Scotland to Australia and settled in Ballarat in the 1850s.

One of my mother's grandfather was a Presbyterian minister and the other was a baker, (see attachments).

I do not have information on the way my great grandparents on my father's side earned their living in Australia, but I think it was through some kind of business based on the expanding gold rush population.

"I Don't Say It Boastinoly Mind You But. . ."'''

My mother's father was a grocer and a tea merchant. He sold his own brand of tea called "Coutts's Celestial Tea" My mother used to sing a

litle ditty that was used to advertise it but I cannot recall the words. I can barely remember my grandfather but I remember quite a few stories about him and one of his sayings was often repeated, mostly in a mocking way. It was

;-"I don't say it boastingly mind you. Indeed I thank-God for it ! But when I was your age I had a business of my own or. ... had bought my o\m home had an importing business eaiTiing x-pounds a

year" or some other fact that he regarded as showing how successful

he was as compared to the offspring he was reprimanding.

There were eight children in his family and all lived very healthy long lives.

''Don't Look on the Other Side !l'

My father's father was a tailor with a very flourishing business at his Bal lai~at shop and through his travel 1 ing salesmen throughout the

Western District.

I don't know much fRt<?ut mv father's family life. I do remember finding some old advei~tising oostcaixls which had a rather corny picture and joke on one side with the words "Don't look on the other side" wit ten

on it. Mien you turned it over it had information about the suits and other men's wear available at Miller the Tailors.

There were nine children in his family. They were all very healthy but they all died before they were sixty.

The Fii^st Generation of Australians

Both my mother and father weio? in the middle of their large families and both families consisted of a fair mixture of girls and boys all with fairly equal spacing of the yeais between children.

My mother taught at private boarding schools. My father was a dentist. Although the two feunilies mixed in the same social circle in Ballai^at my parents did not marry until both were in their early thirties.

The Second Generation of_ AiistraJJans_

My pxrents had five children (two boys and three girls) in eight years. The last two were probably horn when they were, both over forty.

The two boys were the eldest. There was a two year gao between each birth except between me and my sisters. There was a year and half between my oldei* sister and me and two and a half veal's between me and the

To Mother

A childhood Poem by Ken Miller I know so many little girls.

Eyes like diamonds, teeth like pearls, Valda, Marion and many another

But none of them I love like Mother My mother's a darling !

My mother's a pet .'

She is so worried if I do fret.

She watches me carefully lest I should fall Or knock my head against a brick wall.

One day the Minister shall call

"Do you love this woman better than all ?' My truthful answer will be "Sir J

* • * I C- * » a

Golden Memories of Childhood

For good measure I thought I would write out some of the poems I

learnt "at my mother's knee,"and recited to adults at children's parties

*

-Pa 's Darling "I wish I were a bo/*, said little Anne. "Oh don't say that !" said Mau^

"What was it that Pa said last night ? " *My own little darling has been here. "I know for the room is so bright. '" Little Boy Blue and Little Bopeep

Little Boy Blue was weeping out in the fields alone

For Little Bopeep, who he loved so well, away to the Coui~t had flown. With powder and peai-ls and patches and bows on each dainty shoe

She was queen of them all as she danced in the hall Forgetting her Little Boy Blue.

But at night when her heai"t was aching, her jewels she laid aside. She f&ssed through the palace weeping into the dar/c night tide. THERE stood her true love awaiting. THERE stood her Little Boy Blue And she CRIED "Take me home I am wanting nobody else but YOU !

Ten Little Steps and Stairs

(It is a little garbled).

Sony I cannot remember all the words but it was my favourite poem. When I recited it the adults used to cry. I think it was written by the

Australian Irish priest who wix>te the stories in "Ai~ound the Bourrie Log** There were ten little steps and stairs

... Missing a line or lines here. . .

Coming in through the kitchen door

With the vine like pattern of their naked feet Marking the polished floor.

lines I can't recall....

In their home made frocks and Sunday suits.

Up thinough the chui~ch with their squeaky boots While the folk went astray in their prayers.

There were ten little steps and stairs There were ten little steps and stairs.

But the years have shuffled them all about Has made them thin and straightened them out

With the weight of a hundi-ed cares

With a gap in the line and break. Ah well. Thei-e were ten little steps and stairs. A Farmer's Life

(This was my encore recitation) Its hard to be a farmer I think I ought to know.

4-5

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Chart prepared, for a Grandchild's School project

cCime Span Showing Number of Cousins and Age Range 6f Cousins

1900

1910

1920

1930.

I9U0-1950

I960

1970-1980

My grandmother*s generation

My great, great grandmother had 29

grandchildren over a range of 32 years

(V/hen^Ruth Crow was a child)

fiu.lt bofn Irjft

My mother's generation

My great grandmother had ten grand

children over a range of 12 years,

(YJ. h en ~~ Julie O'Brien was a child)

My generation

My grandmother had five grandchildren

ofcer a range of five years

CWhen Kylie O'Brien was a child)

Ay//e- bo*-* fa"7

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e a*ove ^ " ^ i ^ ^ l K ^ i ' l B t ^ a J ^ ^ B ^

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generations that can be tracea on J £

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Great. Great G-<md PareAU Kison / George Coutts

Eight Children one of who., was « g « « g

^

Great Grandparents ....tk w n . i . -•

Five Children one of whom, was f ^ ^ ^ ^ f

crow

Grandparents . -mi it*-rfow

Two children one of whom was ^ ^

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Parents

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Chart Prepared for a Grandchild's School Project

by Ruth Crow

Nearness of Relations and Friends to Family Home

Code.... R = Relation I =Intimate Friend, (like a relation to famil;

F = Friend of one parent jH)= Home.... g^gJSilometera /

Distance from home to circumferences = 5 kilometers. ~ /

Diagram I. In 1920 's Y^hen My Granmother was a. Child *w? ^W p.&C.

{ Friends not included) '

R (60K)

I (10 K)

R (150 K)

I (3.00

R ++++ (100 K)

Diagram 2. In I9UQs Y/hen My Mother was Child,

F (10

R-KlOOK)

Diagram 5

F (10 K)

I C30 K)

R (8K) - — - R (6K)

In the 1970s Y^hen I was a Child

I+++ (300 K)

R++.(300X)

Comment : ^or three years the nearest relations were thousands -.of

kilometers away as the family lived in Canada*

Kote 19203

mixture of relations and intimate fr'

some relations and friends in variov

• V"l •—' *~*

distance and

I9&D5 ...friends and intimate friends within walk;

within half hour public tranpsort.

1970s.... ReZa tlons 300 X. many friends,.:

* ' // '• Li...,("- r /1-<'"•• *•*'' ^

within walking

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Lstance, rela tic

friends near 1

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